The Cattleman (Sons of Texas Book 2) (21 page)

“You coming over for supper?” he asked. “Johnnie Sue’s been smoking a brisket all day.”

She shook her head. “I’m not hungry. After today, I might never eat meat again….Besides that, I don’t think your maid likes me.”

Chapter 13

An earthquake was going on inside Xochimilka’s head and body. She had thought she would never get back to the cabin and escape her Neanderthal guide. As soon as he shut the front door, she tramped straight to the bathroom and brushed her teeth. Then she showered, scrubbing her whole body with soap and a loofah, and shampooed her hair for the second time today. Afterward, she brushed her teeth again. She couldn’t seem to get clean enough.

Feeling only a little better after her shower, she dropped into an oversized chair and clicked on the TV, but she neither saw it nor heard it. Replaying the afternoon used her total focus. An image of Pic Lockhart stringing up that poor dead pig on a tree limb wouldn’t leave her mind. These people were barbarians. She had never wanted to come here and do this. What had her parents gotten her into? Or to be more precise, what had her
mother
gotten her into?

As those questions tumbled through her mind and misery cloaked her, Xochimilka’s phone buzzed. She checked Caller ID, turned down the TV volume and keyed into the call. “Hi, Mom.”

“Darling, how are you?” her mother gushed “Have you been out getting some good photographs? Have you met Pic yet?”

Her mother’s excitement rushed at her through the phone. Xochimilka fought not to break into tears again. Her nose was already plugged, her eyes swollen and sore. “I went out with him today to shoot pictures, but it didn’t work out.”

“Aw, I’m sorry. Do you have a cold, dear?”

“It must be allergies. There are a lot of allergens in the air here.”

“What do you think of Pic? Do you like him?”

Xochimilka could no longer restrain herself. She broke into a wail. “Mom, he’s a redneck animal….He wears a gun. This place…it’s like some…some Bacchanalian orgy.” Her voice hitched. “He killed a pig
. Then he gave it to the ranch workers to eat. And they all made jokes about it.”

Silence on the other end of the line. Finally, her mother cleared her throat. “Dear, I know you have a wonderful and colorful imagination, but you have to realize you’re in a rural area. And life on a cattle ranch is very different from the life you’ve known in Austin. You’re going to have to be…well, open minded.”

Who was her mother kidding? Annunciata McLaren knew nothing of life in the Texas backwoods. As far as Xochimilka knew, her mother had never been out of Austin except to travel often to New York or Ireland once and Italy to visit her family.

“Mom, this is an awful place. Coyotes howl at night. I tried to take some pictures yesterday of the barns and the horses, but the stench was so bad I couldn’t stand it. And these people around here are awful. The workers are smelly and dirty.”

“Why are you around the workers?”

“No one was here to help me find things to photograph, so I tried to take pictures of the bunkhouse.”

“Betty Lockhart has told me that the Double-Barrel Ranch is beautiful. And extremely comfortable.”

Xochimilka looked around at the sumptuous furnishings. “It’s all right, I guess. I’m staying in this guesthouse. It’s nice. But I’m going to have to clean it myself. They have this maid who acts like she’s in charge of everything, but
I don’t think she cleans anything. She’s rude and obnoxious and she doesn’t like me.”

“Aww. Why, dear?”

“I’m not fond of the menu she serves. I suppose she resents that. You know I don’t eat a lot of red meat.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t having a good experience. Betty has told me wonderful things about her family.”

“Mom, didn’t you hear me? She’s the maid, not family. And these people eat wild pigs. I can’t eat things like that. If I want food, I’m going to have to drive somewhere tomorrow to buy it. And I think the nearest town is forty miles away. Can you send me some money?”

“Zochimilka, listen to me,” her mother said firmly. “You are going to have to do this on your own. Your father’s patience is wearing thin. He is not supporting me on this and I cannot defy him. I’ve researched the Lockharts. Everyone who is anyone in Texas knows them. Even the governor. They are very wealthy. They own even more land than I first thought. They have oil. And the oldest son is a Texas celebrity.”

Xochimilka swallowed her tears and stared at the TV screen where clowns were dancing in silence. “I’m trying, Mom. But it’s so hard.”

“You must keep your eye on the reason for your visit there.
Texas Monthly
is going to pay you a nice fee for your piece.”

Xochimilka wanted to scream. A prestigious magazine like
Texas Monthly
would never buy photographs or anything else from her. “It isn’t
Texas Monthly
, Mother.
It’s Texas, Our Texas!
. It’s a nothing magazine that no one has ever heard of.”

“Well, whatever. You must concentrate on doing a good job. You know I persuaded your father to use his influence to arrange this opportunity for you. He’s still against it.”

She began to sniffle again. “I know, Mom.”

“And if something comes of your getting acquainted with Betty’s son, so much the better. Betty is excited for you to get to know him. She believes the two of you would make a beautiful couple. I have to agree. He’s very handsome in his pictures.”

Xochimilka had seen his pictures, too, before she came here. And she had to admit they didn’t do justice to the real man. With sun-bleached hair, slightly curly and un-moussed, sky-blue eyes and classic features, he was more than handsome. And he was big and broad-shouldered, more than a head taller than she. He reminded her of an action hero out of the movies.

“I suppose he is. In a cave man kind of way,” she said to her mother.

“What do you mean? Is he not a gentleman?”

“He’s just so…so….He isn’t my type, Mom. He’s one of those macho kind of guys.”

“I don’t think I know what you mean, dear.”

“He’s nothing like Dad. Or Jeremy or Cory.”

Her dad was a sweet man, but he could hardly be called an action hero. And Jeremy and Cory were her two ex-fiancés. Besides being sissies without a muscle anywhere, both were thoughtless and self-centered. But they were successful. Both were UT graduates with good jobs. Being the only men formerly in her life that her parents knew, their names would paint a picture in her mother’s mind.

“Hm,” her mother said. “Well, from what we know of those two, his being
unlike them is probably a good thing.”

At least her mother wasn’t blind to what her former fiancés really were. “I guess so. He has a girlfriend in town. I wish you had told me.”

“Betty said that doesn’t mean anything. She’s wanted to see them break up for a long time.”

“She must not know what she’s talking about, Mom. The maid told me they’re going to get married.”

“Not if Betty has anything to do with it. That’s exactly what she said to me. Now. Tell me your plans.”

Xochimilka sighed. “Tomorrow, he
’s supposed to take me to some place called the mesa. He and his father say it’s a good place for pictures.”

“Ah. Wear something that makes you look especially pretty, hmm? Oh, and it’s awfully hot, darling. Be sure to wear sunscreen.”

“I will, Mom.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow evening and you can let me know how things went, okay? Your father and I are very eager for you to do well.”

“I know, Mom.”

“Tonight you should
go to bed early and get a good night’s sleep so you’ll be spry and chipper tomorrow and look your best, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Your father needs me for something. I have to run. Don’t forget, I’ll call you tomorrow evening.”

Xochimilka disconnected, but continued to stare blankly at the TV screen. She should just go back to Austin. Just use her last cash to fill up her Beetle and go back. Her father might be upset by her giving up, but he would get over it. He always had.

But what would she go back to? She had no apartment and no job. She would have to move into her parents’ home for some unknown period, an unacceptable choice for both herself and her parents. And she would have to look for a job. The only place that might hire her was some retail store. Companies that needed something other than a sales clerk just weren’t interested in hiring someone who had changed jobs as many times as she had or who had little experience at anything other than being a sales clerk.

She heaved a huge sigh. She was better off right here in this guesthouse. For sure, it was a better place than she could afford in Austin.

Then she realized her mother had ignored her request for money.
Damn.
She would have to eat with the Lockharts and their maid.

She flopped back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
Smoked brisket? Ugh
! She had already thrown up once today. And her stomach felt as if she might again any minute.

She had to go to town and buy food. She simply could not eat here. She had to save what cash she had to get back to Austin, but she did have one credit card she might still be able to use for a small purchase.

****

The evening’s guests were already on the patio having drinks and visiting when Pic arrived at the ranch house. He passed by the patio, said some quick hellos, then excused himself and hurried to his suite.

As he showered off the day’s grit and sweat, guilt nagged at him. He didn’t know how he could have fucked up Zoshi’s project any worse. He should have known better than to shoot a hog with her in the Jeep. All he had been able to think at the time was that he had to take the shot while he had the chance.

He and the ranch hands kept rifles with them every time they went out so they could dispatch a damn hog at every chance. In fact, they had already killed more than three hundred this year and hadn’t even made a dent in the population.

He was so tired he wished he could just crawl in bed, but he had to meet the new vet. Other than a cattle buyer, no outside individual was as important to a ranching operation as the veterinary doc.

As he stepped into clean jeans, a tap sounded on his door. “Son?”

“Come in,” Pic called.

His dad came into the room. “How’d it go?”

“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.” Pic reached into a drawer for a clean T-shirt. One of the maids Johnnie Sue hired always did his and Dad’s laundry, leaving the clothing in his dresser drawers smelling clean and pleasant. He pulled the T-shirt on and tucked it into his jeans. “I shot a hog. Could’ve gotten two if Zoshi hadn’t been with me. I gave the meat to the hands.”

“Did you caution her about going into the bunkhouse?”

He zipped up and buckled his belt. “I asked her not to do it. She said she didn’t have anything else to do. Just like you said.”

Dad nodded. “Did she get her pictures?”

“Nah. We had gotten only as far as the spring tank when I saw the hogs. Listen, Dad, we need to get somebody else to haul her around. I’ve just got too much to do and I don’t have the patience for it. That woman is high maintenance.”

“We can’t spare anybody for something like that. The hands are setting up the cow camps and starting to flush out the yearlings for the sale. Some of them are gone days at a time now, which leaves us shorthanded here at the place. Besides, your mother wants you to do it.”

Pic couldn’t argue about getting the cattle ready for the fall market. The Double-Barrel herd was wild, many of them seeing people only once or twice a year. Finding, sorting and preparing the year-old cattle, along with the culls to be taken to market was a long, relentless process usually done on horseback.
The hands had to comb the farthest reaches of the range and 200,000 acres was a big area.

“I know what Mom’s up to,” Pic said, taking a seat in a wooden straight back chair at the end of the dresser. He kept it there for pulling on his boots. “She thinks that by sending some good-looking chick around, she can drive a wedge between me and Mandy. Can’t you see that’s her intent?”

He pulled on a boot and seated his heel, then reached for the other boot. “This picture-taking scheme is all phony.” He seated his heel in the second boot and stood. “That magazine Zoshi’s taking pictures for? I never heard of it.”

Dad patted the air with his palms. “Son. Believe me, I’m know all about your mother’s schemes. It’s just her way. She just wants the best for her kids.”

“Bullshit, Dad. Look what she tried to do to Mandy just a few weeks ago. That was just wrong. If the superintendent had listened to her, do you know what would’ve happened to Mandy’s life? Or for that matter, to mine? Mandy means a lot to me.”

Pic still felt guilty for the role he himself had played in Mom’s attempt to get Mandy fired. In a bullshit session with Kate months ago, he had told her that he and Mandy used the rhythm method for birth control. Then, back in May, in a phone call with Mom, Kate had let that fact slip. That was all it had taken for Mom to spring into action.